Satish Kumar is an East Indian Activist, Writer, and Jain Monk.
“…they were not motivated by fame, fortune or power. Buddha claimed no copyright on his teachings and Shakespeare received no royalty cheques… it is not a duty. It is not a responsibility. We are not even the doers… (it) flows through us and not from us. We do not own our intellect, our creativity, our skills. We have received them as a gift and grace and we pass them on as a gift and grace, it is like a river which keeps flowing. All the tributaries make the river great. We are the tributaries adding to the great river of time and culture, the river of humanity.”
It is this image of flow, of being part of flow, that so compels me. I live it sometimes as a surrender, to something outside of me. The poem writes me. The design come through me. The next first step becomes belly-clear. I act on an intuition without sorting through every layer of why.
I live the flow sometimes as a deep inner sourcing, something both inside and outside of me. Acting upon what arises from my meditation. Practicing extra kindness with myself and with others. Receiving such important advice from a friend, so serendipitously timed. Following a hunch of a mantra, again without sorting through every why.
To live as tributary, celebrating water and flow in others and myself — yes, something comes alive in this feeling and framing.
A nod to Nicole Frederickson, who writes so beautifully of wonder and possibility in her blog, from which I picked this Satish Kumar quote.
